#acd scan

For @astudyincanon book club, I listened to the wonderful audiobook read by Sir Christopher Lee, thanks so much for the link!! This is the one with the tantalizing mentions of Mathilda Briggs and the Giant Rat of Sumatra and other cases we can only imagine. I also love the “Watson of course comes with us” in the plan to visit the Ferguson home.

This has always been a favorite because it’s such an outstanding example of Holmes helping a woman in need, even though she’s not the client herself, and initial indications are that she might be an antagonist. In contrast with SCAN, though, when Holmes is just learning that maybe his client isn’t entirely in the right, he goes into this case with a much broader mind. I’d say both stories have a happy ending, but in SUSS, Holmes has the satisfaction of actually championing the wife, and bringing about a reconciliation between her and her husband. Irene Adler Norton had already left town before Holmes had fully understood the situation behind and around the case in SCAN.

It also rings changes on THOR and PRIO, also with happy or happier endings. In THOR, the south american wife was already deeply estranged from her husband, jealous of his emotional infidelity, and killed herself: no reconciliation would ever have been possible. In SUSS, the couple are still faithful to each other, and eager to be reconciled. Holmes’ explication of the situation enables their temporary, reluctant estrangement to be healed quite readily. Her only illness was (I assume) due to having accidentally ingested a tiny bit of the poison she was drawing out of the baby’s wound, and the expectation was that it would pass soon.

In PRIO, we also have two half-brothers, where the elder is jealous of the younger and wants to do away with him, but in SUSS it is hoped that the “year at sea” will give Jack the healthy transition to adulthood and independence, so he can outgrow his jealousy. meanwhile the baby will grow up safely, and not be himself warped by his brother’s ill will, about which he can do nothing. Given that both boys are legitimate (unlike in PRIO, where the elder is always going to be the social inferior of the younger, and can never inherit while the younger will get all), one can imagine a future in which they both feel securely loved by loving and united parents, and they will outgrow the rivalry and become friends.

quick book club post before my trip when I will have limited internet access.

REIG has always been one of my favorite stories, probably because Holmes and Watson are SO MARRIED, I must have picked up on that even before I started thinking about the gay subtext. The “shrug of comic resignation”, Watson’s solicitousness, etc. Goodness, the retrieval from the continent alone is a whole adventure packed into a few sentences.

I also enjoy how the local Inspector has heard of Holmes enough to be a bit excited to have him in the area to invite onto the case. But he doesn’t really know him, because he’s surprised at the “queerness” of his methods. Holmes doesn't behave like the august personage he’s expecting, and he’s not sure what to make of him.

SCAN has so many iconic moments. The part I am still puzzling over is, how Ms Adler can consider the photograph “protection” when instead it seems to be the cause of much interference by the King, waylaying her, searching her possessions, burgling her home, etc. I wonder if her threat to send the photo to the family of his fiancee had to do with trying to save the next woman from this man who is quite possibly an abuser? And at some point she gives up, can’t protect anyone else from him, and herself only by marrying and disappearing. 

This story feels like the opposite-day version of SCAN in a way. The lady: Ms Klein (Ms Adler) is about to marry: a noble (a professional) for ambition (for love) having rejected: a professional (a noble) who loved her (who wanted to possess her). The McGuffin is: a manuscript (a photograph) connected to the previous affair, and she has: hired ruffians (been subjected to ruffians) to obtain it (trying to get it from her). Holmes: lets her get away with it for some reason (is outsmarted by her) although it’s clear that she’s an awful person (and he learns to admire her as a truly good person) There are several other points of contrast, it’s quite odd, and I agree with the annotation in Baring-Gould that Holmes seems out of character in several places.

ACD tropes: the perp tries to decoy the mark out of her home in order to get at something in it. (REDH, 3GAR, STOC, subverted in RETI and ILLU when Holmes does the decoying.